Modern Durins
by Truthful nomad
Summary: Thorin and his nephews are getting by after five years in the modern world. They've managed to adapt, but they've never forgotten who they are or where they came from.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey everyone, here's a new fic for you. I don't really know where I'm going with this one, it just kind of came to me and I wrote it spur of the moment, so I would certainly welcome some prompts or requests for this one. I'd welcome contributors, co-authors, or betas as well. Anyway, the same rules apply as all my other fics: it's AU not canon so don't read on if you are a canon nazi. And of course it's Kili/OC and Fili/OC like all my other fics and there will be plenty of angst and hurt/comfort, but as I said, I'm kind of making it up as I go so I have no idea what's happening! Oh and as always, Thorin and company all belong to Tolkien and Peter Jackson!**_

 _ **Oh yes and just an announcement. I created three muses on tumblr for roleplaying purposes. A Fili muse and a Brenna and Asphodel OC muse. I'll probably make a Kili muse also. I've been introducing them into the world of tumblr role play and one of the things I'm doing is opening Asphodel and Brenna to members. So if you role play and you want the opportunity to ship with Fili or Kili (if I make a Kili muse), and you are a fan of my signature OCs, you can contact me via PM or on my tumblr account (same name, truthfulnomad) and I'll add you as a member of the Asphodel and Brenna blog so you can roleplay them as OCs. I'm very strict about playing them in character, as they're in every fan fic I write of course, but if you want to test them out, let me know! And as always, I want to thank all my followers and my reviewers. I know I've let a few fics slip through the cracks, but I haven't forgotten them and I'm committed to finishing Kings and Masters and we'll see how this one pans out too.**_

Fili sighed as he gazed around the empty house. He glanced over his shoulder when he saw his uncle and Kili haul in the sofa.

"Did you lads pick your room yet?" Thorin asked as Kili helped him lower the couch into an acceptable position in the living room.

"This place is huge! I don't there are castles in Middle Earth that are more luxurious than this!" Fili said with a broad grin as he waited for his brother to join him in front of the door, "I'm just glad we won't have to share a room with Legolas anymore."

"Careful with those words, Nephew," Thorin warned as he headed back towards the door, "You have never seen Erebor. You two should go see if you can help the girls, Bard and I are nearly finished with things here."

Fili glanced at the furnishings. It really wasn't much. They hadn't really had much money after all and being from middle earth, they didn't quite understand all these modern conveniences either. Fili still couldn't figure out how to work a computer and a cell phone puzzled him as well.

Fili and his brother headed out the door, running past Thorin, who was helping Bard unload the last of the things from the truck. They ran past the pool area across to the second house where they would be living with the other young ones. Upon entering and hurrying up the stairs, the brothers heard Bilbo's familiar voice, "There now," the little hobbit was saying, "You two have a very nice view."

Fili came into the room and found Master Baggins in the corner, struggling to put the girls' bed together while said girls set about unpacking.

Bilbo, his niece, Asphodel, the two gnomes; Bringen and her daughter Brenna, had met up with the dwarves almost immediately once they arrived in downtown San Francisco five years ago. The three elves; Thranduil, Legolas, and Tauriel, met up with them about a month later, and over the next few months, they were joined by Bard and his three children. Together, the group of 14 transplants from Middle Earth had struggled to adapt to this strange world around them. Of course for the first year or so, their main goal was to find their way back to Middle Earth. But to this day, no one knows how they got there, let alone to get back.

So they were forced to try to make a living in a world they knew nothing about. They decided to stick together, even though Thorin and Thranduil's animosity for one another was no secret and even now, four years later, they had been reluctant to pool their money together to buy this massive country home.

"I'll be right back, I need to get a few tools," Bilbo said, excusing himself from the room as the brothers came in and surveyed the room. It was large and spacious and just like the rest of the house, the girls had not acquired much in the past four years, so it was quite spartan.

Fili came over to Brenna who was busy trying to sort through a box of fabric and yarn, "I think most of the truck was loaded up with your garments," he suggested with a smile as he grabbed a ball of yarn from the box, "I certainly hope we got everything."

"I'm still a gnome," Brenna reminded him, "And I certainly hope you remembered to get my loom and my spinning wheel."

"I'm told that you can purchase this wool already spun," Fili pointed out, "I doubt you have use for that spinning wheel anymore. Although Kili did hand make it for you."

"All these modern human things will only serve to make us forget where we come from," Brenna said, "I'm a gnome. My people are skilled textile artisans. I'll not have someone else spinning my wool for me when I can do it myself. Now are you going to help sort these or are you going to sit there and continue with your smart remarks?"

Fili smirked a bit. He'd grown used to Brenna's bold tongue over the years, and in fact, it was something he admired her for. She'd never been one who held back her thoughts and she always had a bit of wit to use against his jives.

Across the room, Kili moved to the window with Asphodel and gazed out at the rolling countryside that seemed to stretch forever.

"It looks like the shire," Asphodel said, a longing in her voice, "It almost feels like home."

"It does," Kili agreed, "We'll make it our own. All that land out there belongs to us, we can do whatever we want with it."

"We could plant crops," Asphodel suggested, "And raise animals. The shire could be created here."

Fili sighed as he listened to the two of them. He could agree that it looked like Middle Earth out here away from the city, but it wasn't. And after all, the shire wasn't his home.

"Well perhaps that spinning wheel has a place after all," he said softly as he returned his attention to Brenna, "it's a piece of home."

"Agreed," Brenna said, giving him a soft smile. Then her expression turned thoughtful as she seemed to be contemplating something. "Asphie, what is the date today?" she asked suddenly. Asphodel turned to her in confusion before responding, "August 1st, why?"

"Oh the date had almost passed by unnoticed!" Brenna responded as she placed the box of wool into the closet, "How could we have forgotten?"

"Forgotten what?" Kili asked simply.

"Today marks five years since we arrived here," Brenna explained to everyone, "five years to the day."

The room got quiet as the four of them contemplated what that meant. "Ah, it's good that you remembered," Fili said, "it would have been a shame to have forgotten." He got up and crossed over to where Kili and Asphodel were at the window and Brenna joined him.

"We ought to remember the date with a nice celebration," Asphodel suggested, "After all, it's not just about remembering where we came from, but how far we've come since then. Despite the hardships of living in this strange world, I think we've managed to adapt."

"Good thought," Kili said, smiling warmly at Asphodel before turning to Fili, "She's right. Uncle and the others all managed to find good jobs which has allowed us to move out here. And we'll be starting out at the university soon. I wish it were the blue mountains as well, but I think we've managed to make it."

"And we made it together," Asphodel added.

"Come on, let's go get ready for the party," Fili said. The four young ones headed for the main house with their renewed sense of accomplishment and their thoughts of home.


	2. Chapter 2

A week passed in their new home and it was pleasant enough. Kili arrived home from class one day, feeling exhausted. It was a long bus ride home and then of course, it was a bit of a walk from the bus stop in town to their new place out in the country. But the dwarf had gotten used to it.

"Hello?" he called when he saw the house appeared to be empty. "Uncle? Master Boggins?"

No response. Kili assumed they were still at work and tossed his house keys and book back onto the floor in front of the stairs, just as he did every day, and then headed for the kitchen, quickly doing a survey of the refrigerator. He found a styrofoam box labeled 'Thorin's lunch' and quickly grabbed it, opening it up to see what his uncle might have left him.

Kili was delighted to find a heaping mound of potatoes and a salisbury steak with only a few bites in it. He eagerly hurried it onto a plate and into the microwave and then, glancing around to make sure no one was going to catch him, he hurried his prize out the back door and into the guest house he and the other young ones shared.

As he entered the bedroom he shared with Fili, he found his brother inside, sitting at the desk, studying.

"How was class?" Fili asked as Kili plopped down on the bed and dug into Thorin's lunch.

"Good," Kili responded, his mouth full of potatoes, "the humans in my class are all idiots. They don't know anything about wood."

Fili smirked a bit as he continued to focus on his work. Kili watched him for a moment as he devoured the last of his food, "Are we the only ones home?" he asked, "no one was in the main house."

"Uncle should be home soon, its getting late," Fili responded, glancing at the digital clock on his desk to make sure, "maybe he got stuck in traffic or something."

Kili nodded. It wasn't the first time Thorin returned late. Of course the only ones in the house who had learned to drive had the humans and the elves. Thorin, Bilbo, and Bringen had been forced to commute with them. It seemed that there weren't many vehicles out there that were safe to drive when you were shorter than five feet. And there was also the fact that Thorin was extremely resistant to conforming to the technology of this modern world. If it were socially acceptable to ride his pony to work, he would.

The room got quiet for a time while Fili returning to his studying. Kili was bored. He began to tap the back of his fork on his plate for a bit while staring at the back of Fili's head as if that would suddenly cause Fili to leap up and do a dance in an effort to alleviate his brother's boredom.

Eventually, the tapping of the fork did get Fili's attention. "Do you mind?" he asked, turning to shoot his brother a look, "I'm trying to study."

"We just started classes, you can't possibly have an exam now." Kili said, rolling his eyes.

"I want to keep on top of the work," Fili responded, "there's a lot to stone masonry and I want to qualify for the summer apprenticeship."

"Come on, Fili, let's go exploring," Kili insisted, "We can go down by the river and see if we catch anything for supper."

"Bilbo and Dannia went to the grocery store yesterday," Fili pointed out, "There's no need to fish. And Uncle will be home soon, I'm sure Bilbo will be back in time to cook supper."

Kili let out an exasperated sigh and collapsed dramatically onto his back. Fili watched him and finally cracked a small smile, "fine," he said, "I suppose I could use a break."

Kili grinned and quickly slid off the bed as Fili stood up and the two filed out of the room and out of the house. They both grabbed their fishing poles from the closet and their bait boxes and headed out across the sprawling field of brown grass.

"Uncle said that when he's off this weekend, we can see about getting some ponies," Kili said happily as he walked along with his brother, "Remember those summers in the blue mountains when we were dwarflings?"

"Yeah," Fili said with a fond smile, "we'd take our ponies riding and then we'd go fishing and have a swim in the pond."

"We can have that again here," Kili said eagerly, "Just like Asphodel said. This is our piece of middle earth, right here."

It took awhile to reach the outer edges of their large property. When they did, they found a wide, slow moving creek flowing along, marking the border of their land. The brothers settled down on the banks and set out their fishing lines.

"Ahh…" Kili sighed contently as he leaned back into the grass, putting his arms behind his head, "I've missed this."

"It is nice," Fili said before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his pipe and a match. Kili watched him light it and take a long puff.

"That pipe belonged to Father, didn't it," Kili asked as he watched his brother smoke.

"Yeah," Fili confirmed, "Uncle gave it to me when I was old enough to have it. Father carved it himself and he carved Uncle one as well."

Kili blushed a little and reached into his pocket, withdrawing his own pipe, "this one?" he asked.

"Yeah," Fili said, admiring the exquisite wood carving work on both pipes, "they're both his work. I've heard that father was very talented at wood carving. I guess that's where you got it from."

Kili admired his own pipe before lighting it and taking a puff, then taking to skipping stones across the water.

"You'll scare the fish," Fili warned. Kili sighed, feeling restless. He was about to pull out a piece of wood and start carving when he started at hearing a voice behind them.

"Fili! Kili!" the dwarves both turned to see Legolas stalking towards them, a concerned look on his face.

"What is it?" Fili asked as the elf approached.

"I think you had better come back to the main house," he said, "it's urgent."

Kili frowned and glanced at Fili, feeling nervous as he and his brother quickly packed up their things.

Following Legolas back, they entered the main house. Kili arched a brow when he found Bain, Sigrid, Tauriel, Asphodel, and Brenna all gathered around the table, wearing anxious, distraught faces.

"What…" Kili felt his heart tighten a bit as he scanned all the faces in the room. He noted, with more than a little anxiety, that Thorin and the others had not returned.

In the center of the table was a single piece of paper. Kili swallowed as Fili picked it up first. His expression changed from confusion to one of fear as he handed the letter to Kili. The brunette dwarf began to read:

 _If you ever want to see your kin alive again, you will have to come find them._

Kili noticed that there was an address on the other side of the paper and there was also a picture included in the envelope. Kili gasped when he saw the picture. It was a picture of the van Bard drove to work tipped over on the side of the road, engulfed in flames.

"They would have been home by now," Bain pointed out, "I just talked to father on my way home from school, he said they were all heading home early but that they had to stop by and pick Tilda up from school. That was about two hours ago and everyone was with him."

Kili swallowed again and looked to Fili for reassurance. Surely this wasn't real, surely this was some kind of trick? But his brother's expression of fear and doubt made Kili realize that this was indeed no trick.

"This address is all the way in Oregon!" Bain exclaimed as he looked over the map.

"Who could do this…" Sigrid wondered, "Da would never hurt anyone, why would someone do this to him?"

"We'll find him," Bain assured his sister, "And I think we can assume that whoever took him has Tilda too."

"I don't know who would have cause to do this," Tauriel pointed out as she sat next to Legolas and examined the note closer, "No one has gone out of their way to get to know anyone in this world."

"It doesn't matter why they did it," Fili said angrily as he hurried over to grab his coat, "What matters is what we do about it. While you are all standing there trying to figure out all these useless details, our uncle and the others are being held against their will and we have to go get them. Everyone pack your things, we're going to Oregon."


End file.
